News & Notes

AHRD Online Journals

ASSOCIATION NEWS

Changes in the Board of Directors

By Ron Jacobs, AHRD President

The AHRD Board of Directors has recently undergone some changes. After some reflection, Martin Kormanik recently resigned from the Board citing conflicts with his many other professional obligations. Martin has been a long-time active member of AHRD and was also a previous member of the Board; he has assured us that he will remain an active member. We thank Martin for all his contributions to AHRD.

In his place, the Board approved Jessica Li as Board member to fulfill Martin’s term of office, which ends February 2015. Jessica is an associate professor of human resource development at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. We welcome Jessica to the Board, where her primary responsibility will be to coordinate the SIGs. The SIGs represent an important strategic component of AHRD, providing one more way of responding to the diverse needs and interests of our members.

AHRD Board members are committed individuals with a passion for improving the organization. However, we know that circumstances often change in both our professional and personal lives, necessitating that individuals make difficult choices about where to continue to put their volunteer energies. Luckily, the AHRD Board has experienced relatively few member changes over the past 21 years. When they have occurred, the Board has followed our Bylaws on this topic which state, "Any vacancy occurring on the Board of Directors may be filled by the affirmative vote of a majority of the remaining Directors. A person elected to fill a vacant seat serves only the term that would have been served by the person who vacated the seat.” In addition to this statement in our Bylaws, the Board is now considering the addition of a policy statement that will make the Board member replacement process more transparent and consistent. We will announce the policy statement when it has been approved and will publish it in the Digest.

As president of AHRD, I have the privilege of working with a wonderfully committed and engaged Board of Directors. Over time, as Board members enter and exit from their time of service, I have found that even in their differences, they all share the same goal: to support the scholarly community of the human resource development field through AHRD. For that, we can all be thankful to them for their service to us all.

Ron JacobsPresident, AHRD

Call for Nominations

The AHRD Board of Directors, guided by the leadership of the President, enacts the vision and directs the activities of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD). This year, AHRD members will nominate and elect three Board members. We need your help to find the best candidates for these important positions – people who will lead our ever-growing and ever-changing Academy with vitality and vision.

Any member of the AHRD, including former Board members, is eligible to be nominated to serve on the Board. Self-nominations are also accepted. AHRD has a strong commitment to diversity in its general membership and to the diversity of the membership of its Board.

Those thinking about having their names placed in nomination should consider their time commitment for Board assignments. Each member of the Board is given at least two assignments, which include serving on a Board committee and as Board liaison to an Academy committee. Board members are elected for a three-year term and are expected to attend the Board meetings during the annual conferences in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 and one additional Board meeting each year of the three-year term, which are scheduled in the fall and at various locations. Board members are expected to cover their own expenses for attendance at scheduled Board meetings.

All nominees must adhere to following election guidelines. Nominations for Board members should be sent to Darlene Russ-Eft by October 24, 2014. Nominations will close on October 24, 2014. Whether you nominate yourself or someone else, all nominees must provide a written statement that includes both their biographical information and vision for the Academy, including how they would like to contribute in their role as a Board member. You are restricted to a total of 250 words for your statement, which includes both your biographical information and vision. If the statement exceeds this word restriction, sentences will simply be dropped from the end of the statement to fit the space limitation.

Please note that the use of flyers or the AHRD listserv for the promotion of candidates is prohibited.

Please send nominations and nominee statements to Darlene Russ-Eft, Chair, AHRD Nominating Committee, via email darlene.russeft@oregonstate.edu. A reply email confirmation will be sent to you indicating that your nomination has been received. If you do not receive this confirmation within 48 hours, please re-send and/or contact office@ahrd.org.

Board Approves New Global Strategy Statement Policy

This Statement makes explicit the intent of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD) to undertake a systematic global strategy consistent with its mission. The Global Strategy represents a concerted effort for AHRD to promote, support, and develop scholarly research and informed practice related to human resource development.

The goals of the Global Strategy are the following:

Provide opportunities for informal and formal information sharing among HRD researchers and practitioners through regional conferences and meetings across the globe.

Develop partnership relationships with kindred global organizations that share the values and mission of AHRD, for the purpose of event planning, publishing, and sharing of resources.

Empower and support AHRD members to collaborate with global partners for conducting research and engaging in projects that provide experiential learning and development.

Foster publication streams that highlight the progress of global HRD research and informed practice.

In summary, the Global Strategy seeks to propel AHRD as a leader, facilitator, and clearinghouse for ensuring an understanding of human resource development among global leaders and promoting the field as a means to address critical issues on a global basis.

A copy of the statement can be found here. If you would like more information about the statement, please contact Board Members Rajashi Ghosh or Kahlil Dirani.

From the Board

By Jeff M. Allen

Developing a Professional Home

As a university department chair I have a seen more than my fair share of faculty applications, annual review packets, promotion and tenure packets, and external letters of support. The importance of any one individual document in a faculty members review packet can be discussed in depth, but a single questions always moves to the top as candidates are reviewed: “Are they one of us?” What a strange question to emerge from a medley of questions that might be asked of an applicant or colleague, but it may be the answer may clear up many other questions.

First: Does this question only apply to faculty members? Absolutely not. The question applies to any hiring committee or supervisor that is trying to best fit a candidate into a high-performance work team.

Support or lack of support of a candidate’s application can often be simplified down to the question of professional home. A professional home is not a singular line of membership in a professional organization. Many candidates have a list of three, five, even a dozen different organizations where they are members.

What is a professional home? A professional home should be a place where you can learn, grow and lead your profession.

In the first three to five years of membership, a professional home should provide a learning/training environment where you grow your personal knowledge and skills. This is the easiest part for both the professional association and for the individual member. Continuous improvement of professional knowledge and career growth options are key measures that demonstrate that effectiveness of a professional home. There should always be healthy turnover and growth in an organization, but there should also be a core of membership serving the profession, growing ideas, and expanding the base of knowledge. Finally, there is leading. As you move through a professional organization, there must be room for leadership growth and development. The organization must have succession planning appropriate for each stage of membership and the flexibility to change over the years and decades. The Academy of Human Resource Development always needs more leadership, more growth and more learning.

As I review candidates for tenure as an external reviewer, as a hiring administrator, I look closely at a candidate's professional home – or lack. A home requires work. A home requires participation. A home provides security. A home provides identity. A home provides an anchor.

New! Syllabi Database for AHRD Members

The Faculty Learning and Development SIG encourages all members to share their syllabi amongst each other. As we begin the fall semester, you can easily upload your file to the file library located under AHRD Member Central.

Locate the link titled Resources – Syllabi Database. Click on the link and upload your file. Please give your file a suitable name that can be easily found using the search engine (ex: Intro to Human Resource Development Syllabus OR Organizational Development and Change Syllabus). Once uploaded, you can use the search tool to locate similar courses that you may be teaching to gain a new perspective or content ideas for your HRD courses. The more uploads, the more knowledge and concepts we can share!

NEWS ABOUT 2015 CONFERENCE IN THE AMERICAS (February 19-21, 2015)

Submissions & Proposals Due September 8

Submissions are now being accepted for the 2015 AHRD International Research Conference. All submissions (refereed and non-refereed) must be submitted via the online system by September 8, 2014 (midnight MDT). Reminder: There will no further call for submissions after this deadline (as there has been in past years) and there will not be extensions on this deadline. Click here for Call for Submissions

We hope you’re excited about the changes we’ve made around the types of submissions and that you’re stimulated to contribute content that will make for a great conference in February! And, remember, those papers, abstracts, or non-refereed submissions that are strongly aligned with the conference theme, "HRD Research: Gateway to New Frontiers” will be highlighted in the program and/or grouped together as a featured session, so please make connections to the theme explicit in your materials.

Track Chairs Selected

The Chairs for each of the conference tracks have been selected. Track Chairs serve a key leadership role by ensuring that the content and the design of the refereed and non-refereed sessions are supportive of the particular track. We are excited to have them as part of the Conference Team, and are deeply appreciative of their service to AHRD. The Track Chairs are:

Workplace Learning: David McGuire

Organization Development and Change: Robert Yawson

International; Global & Cross Cultural Issues: Sunyoung Park

Leadership and Career Development: Kori Whitener Fellows

Critical, Social Justice, Diversity Perspectives in HRD: Marilyn Byrd

HRD Performance and Strategy: Judy Sun

Technology, E-Learning & Virtual HRD: Rochell McWhorter

Assessment and Evaluation: Katie Desidario

Recruiting Reviewers Now: Please Volunteer

We are currently recruiting peer reviewers for the refereed submissions. We hope you will consider volunteering to review just a few submissions. High quality reviews are critical to ensuring the quality and rigor of the conference! We need experienced reviewers and we also invite those who are new to the reviewing process and eager to stretch their skills.

If you’re interested in serving as a peer reviewer for the 2015 AHRD International Conference in the Americas, please let us know by completing our Track Reviewer Interest Form. The Program Team will ensure your contact information gets to the appropriate Track Chair so you can be considered for this very important role. This online form will not replace Track Chairs and the program team recruiting for reviewers through other means, too; but we do hope that gathering a pool of reviewers via this online tool may help to ease the extensive work of Track Chairs and involve additional people who may be willing to serve as reviewers. Please sign up to be a reviewer through this system — we need you to make a great conference!

SIG-Sponsored Sessions Encouraged

The Special Interest Groups (SIGS) of AHRD can provide vibrant spaces for learning and networking at the conference. We hope that the SIGS you’re a part of are already busy planning some exciting things for the 2015 conference. If you haven’t heard from your SIG Chair(s) yet about potential submissions for papers, abstracts, or non-refereed sessions, contact them with a great idea and an offer to lead or contribute on something that the SIG can offer for its members and/or other conference participants. Reminder: All submissions are due on September 8.

Inviting Pre-Conference Proposals Now

We are now accepting proposals for pre-conference workshops. Pre-conference workshops provide a tremendous opportunity for deeper learning around a specific topic area and/or for professional development. We’re aiming to offer 2-3 pre-conferences that will really add value for our members, especially in areas that are particularly fitting with the conference theme related to exploring the “frontiers” of HRD research and practice.

Do you have a great idea for a pre-conference? If so, see the Call for Pre-Conference Proposals available at Conference Central and submit a proposal by Monday, September 15, 2014 (midnight MDT). If you would like to explore your idea before submitting a full proposal, contact Wendy Ruona (wruona@uga.edu).

Professional Development, Anyone?

By Holly M. Hutchins

If you are like me, one of the main reasons I attend the AHRD Conference and sustain my membership is to engage in professional development. Learning (and being stretched) by my colleagues’ innovative research, picking up new instructional approaches, and cultivating seeds of ideas that help me launch new and exciting scholarly pursuits are just a few of the “fruit” bore from professional development opportunities.

Consistent with AHRD’s vision to “lead HRD through research”, we are doing professional development (PD) differently this year. You may have noticed in the Conference Call that our non-refereed category now has four exciting options for engaging in professional development (FOCUS sessions, Interactive Roundtable Dialogue, Food-Thought, and PDWs). I urge you to review each of these and consider submitting.

However, and as VP of Professional Development, I want to specifically draw your attention to the Professional Development Workshops (or PDWs) option. The PDWs will provide opportunities for colleagues to interactively share knowledge and expertise around capabilities to support research, theory-building, and/or scholarly practice. Consider areas you want to or need to know more about for your own development. Maybe these include: using and handling Big Data, new analytics and techniques around talent management/performance, innovative approaches to theory-building, leveraging social media in disseminating research, or deciding to write a book based on your own research. Have an idea or need around your own development? Share with others and assemble a proposal. Often it is our questions—and not what we already know—that spurns innovative ideas.

As you are busy completing your refereed papers for the September 8th deadline, I urge you to also considering submitting a PDW proposal (also due on 9/8). The professional development experience is a powerful one at AHRD, and we aim to enrich the member options for the 2015 Conference. Please join me in considering your own needs around “new frontiers” of research and practice as a HRD member who “leads” the field through research.

Call for Awards Nominations

One highlight of the AHRD conference is the awards ceremony, where the Academy recognizes the contribution of our members to the field of HRD and to our community.

Members can nominate themselves and colleagues for the following awards by visiting the Academy Awards page.

AHRD Excellence in Scholarly Practice Award

Early Career Scholar Award

HRD Scholar Hall of Fame

Outstanding HRD Scholar Award

Esworthy Malcolm S. Knowles Dissertation of the Year Award

R. Wayne Pace Book of the Year Award

AHRD Service Award

Please visit the site to learn about the criteria for these awards. Nominations will be accepted through the AHRD website only. Nominations begin today and remain open until 5:00 pm EST, November 3, 2014.

SIGnals – News from AHRD SIGs

It is difficult for women to take up high-ranking leadership roles in Asia – where traditional, cultural, and religious beliefs dictate the inferior status of women in daily lives. Due to the rare presence of female leaders in every corner of society in Asia, anecdotal evidence indicates that female leaders might suffer from lack of role models and that their physical and mental health might be in trouble. In this context, the China, India, and Korea HRD SIGs will collaborate to create an Interactive Roundtable Session on Women in Leadership Roles in Asia. The purpose is to raise awareness of the importance of this topic and engage AHRD members in a stimulating dialogue that might lead to future research collaborations.

So, do you have any empirical or theoretical research on this topic to share with us? For example, your research can be on the current state of work conditions of female leaders, detailing how they are balancing their personal and professional lives to successfully survive in organizations in countries in Asia.

Your research need not be restricted to Women in Leadership only in China, Korea, and India. We are open to submissions about this topic in other Asian countries as well. If you are conducting research on this topic, we invite you to be a co-presenter for this Interactive Roundtable Session that we will submit for consideration in the 2015 AHRD Conference.

As a possible outcome of the session, we may invite you to submit full manuscripts for proposing a Special Issue in Advances in Developing Human Resources journal on the topic of Women in Leadership in Asia.

What we need from you:

A brief (200-300 word) abstract of the research paper/work you’d like to share.

1 paragraph bio-statement including your name and contact information.

Exciting Plans for the Faculty Learning and Development (FLD) SIG

Follow our blog. Every month, an AHRD colleague will share thoughts on various topics (mentoring, coaching, developing a research agenda, etc.). Want to sign up to share your insight? Go to SignUpGenius. It only takes an hour, and you could change someone’s perspective.

Share your syllabus on the AHRD Website File Library. It is easy...just click on the Resources-Syllabi Database link and upload your syllabi today. The more we upload, the more ideas we can share.

We will host a Food N Thought and Interactive Roundtable at this year’s AHRD conference in St. Louis. Let us know if you would like to be a part.

We would love to hear from you and learn what you are interested in this year. Email Katie Rosenbusch at: krosenbusch@towson.edu with topics of interests or ideas.

NEWS AND NOTES

Asia Conference Submission Deadline Extended

The 2014 Asia Conference in Seoul, South Korea, has extended the deadline for conference proposals to August 31.

Details on the conference can be found on the AHRD website and submissions can be completed here.

The low labor force participation rate of individuals with disabilities (IWDs) and the recurring number of disability discrimination cases suggests that more effort is needed to create disability-inclusive workplaces. Recently, to improve employment opportunities for IWDs, the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance revised Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act to include a nationwide 7% utilization goal for qualified IWDs. The utilization goal supports recruiting, hiring, and promotion practices, thus strengthening efforts to attract and retain qualified IWDs.

In this webinar, the discussants will present subject matter expertise in describing the current state of disability and inclusion in the workplace. The discussion will include IWDs’ experiences during the employment process, their perceptions of attitudes encountered in the workplace, and their rights to disclose information regarding their disability status. Special emphasis will be placed on creating workplace environments that are “disability friendly,” strategies employers can use to encourage applicants with disabilities, and creating policies that minimize stereotyping, exclusion, and the micro aggressions that can contribute to IWDs' sense of being devalued and marginalized in the workplace. Current and related research on employer best practices from Cornell University will be shared.

The objectives of this webinar are to:

Highlight ways that IWDs perceive workplace exclusion;

Identify ways to measure workplace inclusion;

Recognize workplace policies that contribute to a disability-inclusive environment;

Explain the critical role supervisors play in creating a disability-inclusive environment; and

Recommend practices to create and sustain an environment of inclusion for IWDS.

This webinar is presented by the Workforce Diversity and Inclusion SIG in partnership with the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Employer Practices Related to Employment Outcomes Among Individuals with Disabilities, Cornell University’s Employment and Disability Institute.* The webinar targets new as well as experienced HR practitioners, corporate officers, researchers, scholarly practitioners, and others with an interest in diversity related issues and advancement of inclusive workplace practices.

JOB OPENINGS

Doctoral Faculty - Northeastern University, Boston

The College of Professional Studies at Northeastern University invites applications for a full-time non-tenure track faculty member in the Graduate School of Education.

Our innovative graduate programs address the increasing need for individuals working in educational settings and other learning environments to possess graduate level competencies in theories and practice of organizational leadership. Read More

Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for Organizational Leadership - University of Louisville

The Department of Leadership, Foundations and Human Resource Education (ELFH) at the UofL College of Education and Development seeks candidates who have strong skills in research, experience in delivery of courses using distance education technology, the ability to work successfully with the business and education communities; and provide program leadership and management of the OLL program. Read More

Cost of posting:

Members - $25.00Non-members - $100.00PEN Members - FREE

Posting information :

Job ads are posted for 90 days and are available to all members and non-members visiting the AHRD website.